Guidelines for Presenters

Thank you for adapting and taking part in the ISBNPA XChange Initiative. This event would not be possible without your contributions. To help you prepare for your virtual presentation we have created the guidelines below.

Please note:

For pre-recorded presentations we only require slides with a VoiceOver recording, however, slides with video of the presenter are encouraged as well.

If you were preparing to present a poster, you may choose to send a recorded presentation or simply the PDF of your poster.

If you are a participating author in a live session the Tips for an Engaging Presentation and Prepare Your Space and Equipment guidelines may be helpful.

The deadline to submit your recorded presentation is May 31st, 2020. All presenters of abstracts accepted for the original 2020 conference are invited to submit their presentations, however, we are not accepting any new abstracts or presentations. When registering for the XChange Initiative, please indicate that you will be providing a presentation recording and you will receive instruction via email on how to upload your presentation. Should you require assistance, please contact [email protected].

Keep it simple and plan your slide layout accordingly. Limit bullet points and text. Use colour and fonts strategically, easy to read but inconspicuous. The slides should support your content – not serve as a script.

Have a visually engaging presentation, make use of graphics and photos to illustrate your message. Limit transitions and animation as they can be distracting and can lag in recordings.

Prepare yourself for the narration. Write a script you can follow while recording the voiceover. Practice the presentation a couple of times so it sounds natural and fluid in the recording.

Decide whether to record the voiceover one slide at a time or record a voiceover for the entire presentation in one go.

Remove background noise when possible. Turn off fans, devices, and close the door.

Have all unnecessary applications shut down when you record your presentation. Other multimedia puts a strain on your computer and can impact your recording.

If possible, use headphones with an attached microphone to record. This brings the microphone closer to your mouth so you don’t have to feel like you are yelling.

Ensure the space in the video frame is clean and free of distractions. Zoom’s virtual background feature is an easy way to eliminate background distractions when you have to meet in a messy or busy location.

More light is better. Video quality is dramatically improved, with more lighting. Lighting should be bright and even and preferably coming from in front of you and never behind you to avoid casting shadows on your face.

Interaction with your audience promotes engagement with and interest in your content. Consider interacting at regular intervals without making it too formulaic (5-10 minutes).

Use all of the tools at your disposal so that the interaction avoids becoming mundane. Polling is an obvious and simple way to gauge your audience engagement, but also consider asking them to type in response to a question or comment using the Q&A or chat features. Hand raising is also a quick and easy way to interact with your attendees.

Perform. Be more animated than you usually are. If you want to keep your audience engaged, you have to be more expressive with your facial gestures, hands and voice modulation.

Give visual cues. Encourage participants by giving visual prompts, like nodding your head to encourage people while they are speaking. If they speak for too long, you move slightly forward and open your mouth to show them that you are going to interrupt.

Frontload key points/messages. People remember best the first things they hear, so don’t bury your key messages in the middle when attention levels are at their lowest.

Record a demo to make sure it sounds right before recording the whole presentation. Listen to the audio playback with headphones. Headphones help isolate the audio and you will hear any problems better

Stand up while recording. You’ll feel more energized and be able to breathe better. If you do sit, don’t slouch. Sit up straight and keep your chin out. Don’t let it drop to your chest

Leave a few seconds silence at the start of each track to avoid the transition cutting out any talking

Look into the camera when talking instead of looking at yourself. Direct eye contact into the camera while speaking gives attendees the impression you are looking at them, rather than off screen. This naturally creates an environment where everyone feels engaged and present in the conversation.

You should see your webcam on the screen indicating the meeting has begun. You can choose to turn the video feature on/off by selecting the video icon at the bottom of the screen.

To set up your microphone, click on the chevron next to the microphone icon. From the pop-up list that appears, select the microphone you wish to use. Test your audio to ensure the microphone icon is filling with some green when you speak.

Before beginning your Zoom recording, open your presentation (PowerPoint, Prezi, or other presentation software) and set it to speaker/presentation mode.

Once your presentation is being shared on the screen, expand to full screen, and you will be able to advance slides with your mouse, space bar or arrows on your keyboard

When the presentation expands to a full screen, your video screen will be reduced to a small window. You can reposition this window to wherever you would like it to appear throughout the presentation. You can also change the size of your video screen from small to large. If you choose to use the larger size video screen, be sure that you have designed your slides accordingly. *Remember, the webcam video will appear in the final recording.

Select the “Record” button at the bottom of the screen and begin your presentation.

If you need to take a break while recording select the Pause button, when you are ready to continue resume by pressing Play for a continuous video. When you are finished your recording press stop and end the meeting.

The recording will automatically save to your computer, locate the filed rename using the provided guidelines.

Save your file name as the following: ID_lastname_first 5 words of your title (eg: 37_Smith_A study in Youth Participation.

Save your presentation under any of the following: MP4, MOV, WMV, AVI, and FLV.

Your presentation will be uploaded to the ISBNPA XChange Vimeo channel and will only be available to the XChange attendees.

All videos uploaded to Vimeo will be converted to square pixels. Regardless of format, all videos will be displayed at the correct aspect ratio.

Vimeo does not accept audio files, image files, or other non-video formats, such as: MP3, WAV, WMA, JPG, and PNG. Project files such as imovieproject and dvdproj files are also unsupported, since these are not video files.

The time available for each virtual symposium is 60-minutes sharp. One of the primary responsibilities of the presenters is to prepare for their presentation properly, and this includes ensuring that the presentation does not exceed the allocated time of approximately 8 minutes per presentation, to a maximum of 10 minutes.

The chair’s role will be to present a brief introduction of the topic of the symposium and introduce each presenter (5-7 minutes). Following the oral presentations, the discussant will provide a brief overview of the main issues (5-7 minutes), then the discussant will moderate a discussion of the topic between presenters and attendees.

During the presentations, the discussant will be tasked with managing participants by monitoring the chat and Q&A as well ensure presentations remain on time by providing a 2-minute and 1-minute warning to presenters.

Plan a rehearsal a few days before your presentation to review the technology, discuss roles and tasks and finalize your content to make sure everything runs smoothly.

Prepare, prepare, prepare. Make sure you know which presenters are part of your Q/A session. Make sure you have viewed and understand all presentations that are part of your Q/A session. Make sure you familiarize yourself with any offline questions asked for each presentation and have additional questions prepared to keep the discussion flowing.

Know the technology. If you do not have one already, create a free Zoom account so you can access the live sessions. You need to master the technology – mute/unmut icons, sharing screens, videos, using polls and Q/A and chat box features.

Explain the purpose, agenda and rules of engagement. You have to be clearer and more structure then when you moderate in person.

Actively listen. You need to stay on top of what question is being answered as well as all the additional questions that are coming in. Make sure you know which presenter should answer respective question based on their presentation or expertise or both. Stay on top of the questions coming virtually and bundle them if they are related to the same point, issue in order to avoid asking the same thing twice.If there are not enough questions, be prepared to use your previously prepared discussion points making smooth transitions to your next point or presenter.

Manage the time. The live Q/A sessions are 60-minutes sharp. You need to manage the length of your presenters’ responses and allow enough time for all presentations to have the opportunity to address questions.

Ensure all Q/A are answered. When the live session is over be sure to download the Q&A report and respond to unanswered questions upon reviewing them with presenters.Zoom allows you to respond to questions while in session either verbally by selecting “answer live” or via text by selecting “via text”. Using these options accurately during the live session will help you review your Q&A report to find questions that were not addressed in the session. The final set of Q&A can be added to the Whova app for participants to view and learn more.

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